Each month, we feature an Ohio City as part of our Ohio Community Spotlight series. This month we feature a “City of Growth and Progress:” Trotwood.
Last month, we visited Vermillion as part of our Ohio Community Spotlight series. This month, we travel to Montgomery County to showcase the City of Trotwood.
Trotwood Rail Depot
The city of Trotwood is a suburb of Dayton with a population of 23,070. The city is majority black (68.63%), with a growing mixed and multiracial population. Considered a “first ring” suburb, it's part of the Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area or “MSA”.
What is today Trotwood was first inhabited by the Miami and Shawnee Tribes who settled along the Great Miami River.
Tecumseh, noted leader of the Shawnee, defending prisoners at the Battle of Fort Meigs.
Wolf Creek, one of the Greater Miami River’s tributaries, cuts right through the center of Trotwood making it a popular spot to fish and providing quite the view!
Photo via City of Trotwood
Photo via City of Trotwood
Trotwood was originally platted as “Higgins Station” in 1854, but was later incorporated as the Village of Trotwood in 1901 and reached city status in 1971. In 1996 the city merged with Madison Township creating the modern city Trotwood is today.
Trotwood’s economy is closely tied with that of its neighbor to the east, Dayton. Trotwood historically has been a home to manufacturers, and many residents commute into the urban center to work.
Trotwood has shown its appeal to manufacturers once more as a prime location for international investment.
The city will become the home of Westrafo, an Italian transformer manufacturing company‘s first plant in the United States.
Groundbreaking of Westrafo Manufacturing in Trotwood featuring JobsOhio and Lt. Governor Jon Husted. Photo by Noelker (DDN)
This new facility will create up to 230 new jobs, providing local residents with employment opportunities in a high-tech industry, and funds from the agreement will be used for community and workforce investment via programmatic development.
The city was able to attract this new facility as a result of their 5-year strategic planning process known as Trotwood Future Think-Tank Workshop with community stakeholders.
Through this scenario planning process, participants look at three or four different paths and discuss how stakeholders should respond in each situation to achieve a goal.
Participants are expected to describe conditions as well as policy and programmatic solutions and responses that the city may implement.
Stakeholders felt a strong desire to see aggressive investment in modernizing the city as well as greater connectivity to the rest of the region, and the arrival of Westrafo is another step in that direction.
Another step that the city has taken focuses on cleanliness: Trotwood’s Adopt-A-Park Program allows community groups and organizations to take responsibility for the state of their assigned park. It involves an agreement to visit at least 3 times per year.
Participants in the program are expected to Clean play and eating areas, Pick up litter, and plant flowers or trees, and weed gardens, all while the city provides the necessary equipment and safety measures.
This kind of programming helps ease the load on public works crews, meaning the city can dedicate more time and resources to other, more intensive, maintenance projects. It also encourages residents to feel a sense of responsibility and ownership over the state of their city!
Trotwood takes the beauty and cleanliness of their city very seriously; To cut down on illegal dumping, the city has installed cameras at known sites using a $15,000 grant awarded by the Montgomery County Environmental Crimes Task Force.
Local leaders have taken strategic initiative with Trotwood’s trajectory, in programming and financing. The city is currently in the process of updating their comprehensive plan, which will guide city policy for development and function as a blueprint for the community’s future.
In pursuit of this bright future, Trotwood has not only faced but overcome catastrophe. The Memorial Day Tornado Outbreak of 2019 was a prolonged series of destructive tornado outbreaks across the nation, totaling 400 tornadoes in nearly 2 weeks – including 23 in Ohio.
This outbreak was the fourth costliest weather event in Ohio history.
During the overnight hours of May 27, an EF-4 Tornado struck Trotwood, destroying 59 homes and damaging 500 more.
The community rallied, with organizations like the Trotwood Community Improvement Corporation and the Homeownership Center of Greater Dayton helping to support those in need and provide necessary resources.
In spite of this tragedy, the Trotwood community has shown incredible resilience. Through emergency grants to rebuild and rehouse residents, volunteer efforts, and organizational support the community has worked hard to recover.
Photo via of City of Trotwood
Trotwood is both a beautiful and strong community, with so much to offer. GOPC has its eye on Trotwood and you should too! We’re all excited to see what comes next for the wonderful city. Tune in next time to see what other city will be covered in our community spotlight!
